I’m an Italian-born US citizen. I currently live in southern California. I’m the only member of my family living in America. All of my relatives live in Italy. There is a rivalry that defines Italy. Northern Italians look down on southern inhabitants. With little effect, as southern Italians don’t look up to their northern compatriots. Even more culturally detached from the Italian peninsula are the Sicilians who don’t consider themselves Italian.
Prior to becoming a US citizen I lived in Montreal, Canada, where I immigrated when I was five years old. Later, in my mid-thirties, I moved to Los Angeles where I found a similar attitude: Northern Californians look down on southern dwellers, especially citizens of Los Angeles.
When I was living in Montreal I noticed a similar characteristic about Canadians: They felt superior to Americans. This feeling was mostly shared among colonizing English-speaking Canadians, due in part to their hereditary loyalty to the British Crown. Until recently, Americans considered Canadians as well-mannered Liberals to the north. Attitudes have changed due to concerns that Ottawa is lax in controlling the flow of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border and alleged traffic of fentanyl.
In the US, there is a historical resonance about north~south rivalry dating back to the Civil War. Today this rivalry could be described as the axis of San Francisco~Sacramento, Chicago and New York city looking down to south central America.
The word superior literally means to be situated above other things or beings. Feelings of superiority among people living in northern countries seem to confirm the definition of the word.
People who have lived any number of years in Europe might have noticed a similar rivalry and to some extent, animosity, between northern and southern countries: Northern Europeans look down at the southern, mostly Latin countries like France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It’s somewhat of a consolation to realize that Latin people don’t look up to the northern inhabitants.
Northern countries are mostly Protestant whereas southern nations are mostly Catholic. Northern territories have colder weather and have a greater percentage of their economy based on heavy industry whereas southern areas have a warmer climate and typically have a greater percentage of their economy that relies on small family business, agriculture and tourism. Nordic climate is favorable for beer production and drinking whereas southern weather is better for wine making and drinking.
The war in Ukraine has damaged the cohesion of the European Union (EU). It also exposed an alarming dictatorial disposition coming from the leaders of the EU, with a growing warmongering coming mostly from the Nordic countries. An attitude that may increase the risk for a potential dissolution of their political union.
The current head of the EU commission is held by Ursula von der Leyen, a German. She was not elected to her position by the people of Europe. It remains a mystery, and should be a concern, who appointed her President of political power of Europe.
The current chief diplomat of the EU is Kaja Kallas. Her statements reveal that she is a vocal Russia-phobic. Not a good disposition for a diplomat. The fact that she has little access to powerful diplomatic circles will not be helpful to promote the standing of the EU in the world. Case in point, she is shunned by USA and China diplomatic delegations.
Ursula von der Leyen is German and Kaja Kallas is a citizen of Estonia. A northern country bordering Russia with a small population of ~1.4 million. These two political officials reveal a dominant political power of northern countries at the expense of the southern nations. A situation set to increase the tension between north and south.
Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is a showcase of the historical European political division. In many respects, the city is a dividing line between northern and southern Europe. The EU Parliament and NATO’s headquarters are both located in Brussels. A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde so to speak of the concentration of political and military power. Members of each institution know each other and mingle, generating a big interconnected bureaucratic fortress.
Belgium has a contentious past. The country is made up of two ethnic groups; a majority of Germanic-speaking Flemish to the north and of French-speaking Walloon to the south. Northern Belgium is mostly Protestant and the southern regions are mostly Catholic. During the 1970s and 1980s during a resurgence of linguistic, religious and economic tensions almost culminated in a civil war. That makes Brussels the likely center of a political devolution of the EU.
The plan to expand the EU’s membership and the expansion of NATO alliance to the north may prove to be fatally misguided. The EU’s elusive goal of toppling the Kremlin in order to take over Russia’s vast resources will likely turn out to be a big strategic mistake. And the potential collapse of Ukraine’s military will put added pressure on Europe’s Union.
In order to salvage a European cohesion, northern political leaders have proposed policies that include reducing the welfare state in order to replace it with a warfare state. These goals will only add a tax burden on a population and inevitably increase a resentment against their political leaders.
I will conclude with an exception to the rule. Argentina is located at the very bottom of South America. It nonetheless considers itself superior to most of the Spanish speaking countries located to the north.
